


( backwards )

by pentaghastly



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/F, F/M, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, kosta is also confused, kosta is an idiot but so is ryder s o, literally the purest form of trash, nora is confused, vetra and cora are definitely the least confused but that's nothing new
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 16:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10597836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pentaghastly/pseuds/pentaghastly
Summary: She understands that people like Kosta, charming and charismatic and handsome, do not fall in love with girls like her.Clever, but awkward. Witty, but witty in theRyder’s just another one of the guysway. It’s been the dynamic of their group for years: Scott loves Reyes. Cora loves Vetra. Nora loves Kosta, and she just follows him about with the sincere hopes that he never actually notices it.Except now the dynamic is: Scott loves Reyes, Cora loves Vetra, Nora loves Kosta, and Kosta asks Nora to help Kosta ask Lexi to Yule.It’s a clusterfuck.(She still loves him.)It’s anightmare.(or, "The One Where Ryder Helps Kosta Ask a Pretty Girl To Yule and She's Totally Not Jealous About Anything")





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is self-indulgent trash that definitely hasn't been reviewed or edited but i was too into the idea of a Ryder/Kosta Hogwarts AU not to post it immediately. 
> 
> I apologize in advance for the level of tooth-rotting fluff you're about to receive!!!

**i.**

He’s smiling at her again.

(He’s always, _always_ fucking smiling. It’d be almost obnoxious if it wasn’t so cute.)

“Eleanora Ryder - the very person I was looking for. Has anyone told you how stunning you look today?”

She rolls her eyes, pausing on the landing as she waits (im)patiently for the next staircase to rotate to their position. “You know that you’re the only person in the castle who calls me Eleanora, right? I don’t even think that half the students here know I have a first name - probably half of the professors don’t know that either.”

Nora is _Ryder_ , and Scott is Scott. It had always struck her as a bit unfair that she was the one who got shackled with the pressure of being called by their family name while her twin brother got to run around making whatever he wanted of himself without the continual reminder of being a _Ryder_ , but Nora supposes that just comes with the territory of being the older sibling. Scott is whoever he wants to be; she is her father’s daughter, through and through.

Except to Kosta, apparently. He calls her Eleanora, and she doesn’t ( _totally_ ) hate it.

“There’s no point in having such a pretty name if no one calls you by it, is there? Anyways, Eleanora,” the Gryffindor grins, ignoring the pointed glare that she shoots him as she steps onto the staircase that has finally swung in their direction, “I need your help. It’s very important business, you see, and you’re the only one I can count on to carry the day.”

“Don’t you normally go to Scott for this sort of thing?” It isn’t that Liam and Scott are closer than her and Liam - in fact, she actually counts Kosta to be one of her closest friends, second only to Vetra. It’s just that when it comes to shenanigans of the Liam Kosta variety, typically the burden of participating in them fell to Scott’s shoulders while she, Cora, and Vetra stood back rolling their eyes and placing bets on who would wind up with the longest detention sentence.

She would have loved to be a part of them, sure, but it simply could never happen. Her dad would _kill_ her if she got a detention, whereas with Scott it was just...expected.

_The lucky bastard._

“With what kind of thing? You think -” Liam pauses, looking more than a bit confused, before realization strikes him and he shakes his head quickly. “Nah, Nora-Dora, this ain’t one of our little pranks or anything like that. It’s definitely not something Scott can help me with either - he’s way too canoodled-up with Reyes to even be an option. Then there’s Vetra and Cora going together, which makes both of them a clear no, and for obvious reasons I’m _not_ gonna bring Peebee - that’d just lead to all sorts of trouble, and -”

Nora has an idea - an inkling - of what he’s getting at, but it’s so ridiculous that she needs to hear him say it out loud. The fact that he thinks - that he honestly _believes_ this proposal, presented in this way, is something she’d say yes to is almost insulting; in fact, Nora’s quite certain it would be if it weren’t so damn hilarious.

So she pauses in the middle of the third floor corridor that they’ve made their way into, eyeing him with one eyebrow half-quirked in curiosity. “Just what are you getting at here, Kosta?”

“I was wondering,” he says, _finally_ , and Nora wonders if she’s imagining the nervous undertones in his voice, “well, I was wondering if you’d help me figure out a good way to ask Lexi to go to the Yule Ball with me?”

_Oh._

He’s smiling at her still - childishly, expectantly - and she wants to scream in his face (because really, how _dare_ one human being be so pathetically oblivious to someone else’s feelings), but he’s still smiling at her and she finds that the only thing she can do is mutter out a weak, pathetic agreement.

It’s going to be the single worst week of her life.

**ii.**

“What does he see in her?” She mumbles to Vetra, ignoring the other girl’s impassive _huff_ of a reply. “I mean, yeah, she’s hot and all, but she’s so _obvious_ about it, you know?”

Surely, Nora thinks, Vetra knows. Lexi’s gorgeous, and she’s not even mean enough that Nora can hate her for it. The Ravenclaw has wanted to be a healer for as long as Nora has known her - longer than that, probably - and her dark skin makes a stunning contrast with her pale blue eyes that light up like stars whenever she starts to talk about how passionate she feels about _helping people_ , so sincere it nearly makes Nora sick.

Nora’s not like that. Her skin is dark and smooth like Lexi’s but it’s freckle-dotted, and while she doesn’t totally hate the marks she _does_ know they make her look three years younger. Her hair is coiled and it stands up in twenty different directions, and her eyes aren’t crystal blue - they’re yellow, like a cat, and the nicest thing Liam has ever said about them is that they’re ‘ _disarming_ ’.

He then went on to elaborate that by disarming he meant _creepy_ , so she really doesn’t have much working in her favour.

“She’s your friend,” Vetra replies, ignoring Nora’s responding glare. “You could, you know, _talk_ to her about it?”

“About what? There’s nothing to talk about, it’s just _weird_.”

“And by weird you mean it’s weird that you’re obviously in love with Kosta and crazy jealous he’s taking someone else?” The way that Vetra is looking at her right now is so intense that Nora almost feels as though she has to hide her face - it’s as though the other girl is looking directly into her soul. “I don’t think that’s that weird at all. Cora and I have been waiting for something like this to happen since the start of fourth year, when Kosta came back from summer break with abs.”

“I am _not_ in love with Kosta,” she shrieks, then winces the seconds she’s hushed. Nora keeps forgetting that the library is actually meant for studying, not gossip; it’s just that as a seventh year she’s stopped caring. “If anything, with all the flirting and the ‘ _Oh Eleanora, have you ever been a naughty prefect?_ ’ business, he’s the one who’s in love with me.”

That’s what she’s always assumed, anyways. Kosta is flirty with everyone, sure, but he’s not half as flirty with everyone as he is with her.

Or so she had always thought.

(He’s flirtier with her than he is with Lexi, at least she knows that.)

“Just don’t Slytherin this one up, Ryder,” Vetra scolds her, although Nora can tell from the slight quirk of her lips that she’s joking. _Mostly_. Vetra’s built like a statue and sometimes her features can be so difficult to read that she might as well actually be one, but Nora likes to think she knows her well enough by this point to know when she’s just messing around. “Maybe Kosta really likes her. If you’re his friend, you’ll help him out.”

Vetra’s annoying, but she’s also right - as per usual. “Bitch,” Nora mutters, only slightly wincing at the slap to her shoulder in response. 

She’s not going to Slytherin this one up, but she’s _definitely_ not going to give it one hundred percent of her efforts, either.

**iii.**

So, yeah. Maybe Vetra’s right.

Maybe she _is_ a little bit in love with Liam Kosta, but it’s not a big deal or anything.

Because she’s never expected him to love her back. Nora’s always been a bit perturbed by the idea of love - when she had first found out about Cora and Vetra she had screamed at them for hours about how they were ruining the integrity of their group - but she also likes to think that she understands it. She understands that people like Kosta, charming and charismatic and handsome, do not fall in love with girls like her. 

Clever, but awkward. Witty, but witty in the _Ryder’s just another one of the guys_ way. It’s been the dynamic of their group for years: Scott loves Reyes. Cora loves Vetra. Nora loves Kosta, and she just follows him about with the sincere hopes that he never actually notices it.

Except now the dynamic is: Scott loves Reyes, Cora loves Vetra, Nora loves Kosta, and Kosta asks Nora to help Kosta ask Lexi to Yule.

It’s a clusterfuck.

(She still loves him.)

It’s a _nightmare_.

**iv.**

“Right, so I’m thinking something big. Like, _big_ big. Do you know if Lexi likes roses? All girls like roses - you like roses, don’t you?”

Liam’s rambling, and it’s equally annoying as it is cute. _Asshole_.

“First of all - ‘ _all girls like blank_ ’ is going to be categorically false one hundred percent of the time, so don’t even start any of your sentences with that from now on. And no, I don’t like roses - they smell like old ladies and dying.” One negative association could ruin things forever, that was something Nora had learned long ago, and her grandmother’s perfume had ruined roses for good. “I like calla lilies, but that’s not the point. Knowing my favourite flower isn’t going to tell you Lexi’s.” He grunts in agreement and so, for good measure, she adds: “What _do_ you know about her?”

As Nora quickly learns, the wealth of knowledge that Liam holds on Lexi isn’t even enough to fill up a single sheet of a notepad. It’s not even enough to justify using one in the first place.

He knows her name is Lexi - obviously - but he doesn’t know her last name. He knows she wants to be a healer, but _everyone_ knows that, and Liam says that her favourite colour is blue before admitting that he doesn’t actually know that for certain, and he’s just guessing because she wears it all the time (which leads to Nora quickly reminding him that she’s a _Ravenclaw_ , meaning she kind of has to, to which he just shrugs in response).

In summation, it’s a complete and total disaster. She doesn’t even feel a bit bad for him, because as far as Nora’s concerned this is just karma biting Kosta on the ass for not making this whole damn thing ten times easier and asking her to begin with.

She isn’t going to tell him that, though. Nora told him she would help, and she plans on holding to that promise.

No matter how painfully impossible it is.

“Why are girls so difficult, mate? And before you get all snippy and ‘ _Not All Girls_ ’ on me, believe me, I know.” He sighs, running a hand through his dark curls before turning back to her. “I wish more girls could be like you, Eleanora. That’d be so much less of a bloody hassle. The world would be a much less complicated place.”

She can’t help it; she’s glaring at him before he even finishes his sentence. “Do you _ever_ fucking think before you speak, Kosta?” 

It’s not that what he says is inherently mean, Nora supposes. It’s the way he says it - the way that he implies that she’s somehow _different_ than girls like Lexi, different as in ‘ _not wanted_ ’ in the same way as girls like Lexi - that grates on her nerves. He clearly doesn’t get it either, gaping at her like a fish out of water, but she won’t take her snapped sentence back. 

“I meant that as a compliment! Like, there’s not all that _business_ with you, you know? I don’t have to feel all like putting on an act - we can just be straight up. I mean you’re refreshing, right? There’s less pressure.” He’s trying to be reassuring, but Nora can almost picture the shovel in his hands, the hole he’s digging himself down to the core of the earth.

Poor, poor Liam Kosta. Nora thinks he might find himself buried alive down there.

“Yeah, well. Maybe if I was more like Lexi then someone would have actually asked me to Yule this year but,” she shrugged, turning back to their planning sheet and steadily avoiding meeting his eyes, “ _whoopee_ for me, right? At least I’m refreshing. Like a fucking glass of lemonade.”

He looks significantly cowed, and she thinks, _good_. It’s about time someone shut him up.

“Nora, I didn’t -” he starts, but she cuts him off with a glare.

“It’s whatever, Kosta. Haven’t had a date to a yule any other year, and I definitely don’t need one this year. You, however,” she gives him a once-over, trying desperately to cover up the awkwardness from just moments before, “you look like you could use the ego-boost, so let’s keep working. Do you at least know her favourite song?”

He doesn’t, but he hoots in victory when he correctly guesses that Nora’s is Space Oddity.

(She’ll take that as a win).

**v.**

“So. I hear you flipped out at Kosta.”

Cora’s tone is sounding particularly _judgy_ \- not that that’s something new, but Nora doesn’t really appreciate it at the moment. She’s still embarrassed that she lost her cool like that, and she doesn’t need her friend rubbing her face in it.

“I didn’t flip out on him, I just told him off. And he deserved it, so,” she shrugs, trying to appear nonchalant, and takes another sip of butterbeer to try and give herself another moment to think, “I don’t feel like I have anything to apologize for. I’m tired of being his back-up, you know? Like ‘ _Oh, Scott’s busy so I’ll just go get Eleanora to help me out, since she’s just one of the guys _’. It’s tiring.”__

__Cora’s still staring at her, half-intense, half-amused, and it’s making Nora highly uncomfortable. All she says is, “Whatever you say, Ryder,” but it feels like she’s saying something else._ _

__“I’m not in love with Liam,” Nora insists, and it sounds like a lie even to herself._ _

__“Whatever you say.”_ _

_**vi.** _

__The letter falls in the middle of her plate of breakfast._ _

___Eleanora,_ _ _

___Come meet me at The Black Lake soon as you’re done your eggs. It’s urgent. Very top-secret Yule business, so don’t tell a soul where you’re going if they ask._ _ _

___L.K._ _ _

__As she eats her breakfast, she considers not going. What would he do? It wasn’t as though he could drag her there, kicking and screaming - he’d be angry, sure, Nora wonders if she even really cares anymore. Kosta has made it pretty clear that _he_ doesn’t properly care about _her_ , at least not in the way that she wants him too, so she’s not sure why she should bother._ _

__Except that’s not fair, and she knows it. He’s not obligated to love her back, and to try and force that on him...well, Nora knows it makes her a bit of an asshole. Kosta’s her friend, and she should want him to be happy._ _

__She _does_ want him to be happy._ _

__So she goes to the lake._ _

_**vii.** _

__She goes to the lake, and Kosta, the _prick_ , isn’t even there waiting for her._ _

__“Honest to Merlin Kosta, _seriously_?” Nora’s not even sure who she’s yelling at at this point, but it feels like a combination - like she’s yelling at the sky and the gods and her mum and Kosta and herself for being stupid enough to even fall for such an asshole in the first place. “Ridiculous. Bloody _classic_.”_ _

__She has every intention of leaving. She’s going to, actually - she’s stomping her foot in the ground in a childish move of impatience, once, twice, before turning around to head back up to the castle._ _

__Except she isn’t going to get far, because Liam Kosta is standing in her path._ _

__(He’s holding a bouquet of calla lilies.)_ _

__“I was gonna make this a whole _thing_ , right? Like, over there,” he pointed to a shrub nearby, one that looked rather plain at the moment, “over there was going to be a stereo, yeah? And Space Oddessy would be blasting, and I’d like, fly over the sky on my broom writing the words out like how those planes do? Then I’d fly down and you’d be all ‘ _Oh Kosta, that was amazing!_ ’ and I’d give you the flowers and it’d be dead romantic.”_ _

__He’s rambling. Rambling is _Nora’s_ job, except now she’s staring at him with an expression that can only be defined as ‘dumb-struck’ while letting Kosta go on with...whatever the hell it is he’s trying (rather admirably) to say to her._ _

__“Except then I thought...this is you. Like I said, I don’t need to put on an act with you, you know? It’s just _real_ with us. So I figured I’d get, like, real.”_ _

___Real_. None of the past week has been real, she realizes, and Liam is going on about something to do with plans and procedures and surprises and it’s not making any sense to her in the least - she suspects it isn’t really making any sense to Kosta, either._ _

__It’s at this point that Nora manages to regain her voice, just long enough for her to (rather accusingly) exclaim, “You’re asking Lexi to Yule!”_ _

__“That was a cover! A bad one,” he holds his hands up in front of him, trying his best to look innocent and cute - and it’s _working_ , much to her chagrin. “Yeah, Lex was in on it too. The plan was like, you’d work together with me on the dream Yule proposal so I’d know how to ask you, and then when the time came you’d be all surprised and it’d be everything you wanted. But we weren’t planning your dream Yule proposal, we were planning _Lexi’s_ , and I realized that I probably should have just asked you like a normal person in the beginning? It was a dumb move on my part, Eleanora, but I swear I was gonna ask you the whole time.”_ _

__She believes him. God help her, she believes him, but she’s not going to let him off that early - not when he messed her about for a week straight. “Someone else already asked me,” she says, holding her chin up high as if with confidence to try and make him believe it._ _

__“Did you say yes?” he asks, and he actually sounds _scared_._ _

__“No,” she concedes, and then adds, “I was lying, anyways. No one asked me. I just wanted to see how you’d react if someone did.”_ _

__“I’m asking you to Yule,” he says, and Nora replies back, “You _are_ ,” because she can’t think of anything else to say. It’s quiet between them for a bit - the quietest it’s ever been between them, if Nora’s being honest - but she knows that there’s something else she has to ask, too._ _

__“Why?” and it’s the simplest, scariest word of all._ _

__“Because I love you?” he says, and somehow it makes perfect sense._ _

__And _somehow_ it’s the funniest thing she’s ever heard, because Nora is laughing hysterically and Liam looks torn between amusement and offense, but his expression doesn’t last long because she’s stepping forward to kiss him like her life depends on it. He smells like english breakfast tea and pumpkin pasties and aftershave and it’s weirdly _perfect_ ; the stubble lining his jaw is something new and scrapes against her cheek in a way that Nora just knows is going to leave a mark but she really, honestly, couldn’t give less of a damn._ _

__“You’re such an _idiot_ ,” she mutters against his mouth, and she can feel the cocky smile that he would be giving her if his lips weren’t otherwise occupied with her own. It’s perfect; she could drown in it._ _

__Cora and Vetra are going to have a fucking field day with this, she thinks, and then she decides, _let them_._ _

__(She’s going to owe Lexi an apology for all the dirty looks, later._ _

__It’ll still have been worth it.)_ _

**Author's Note:**

> kudos & reviews are always appreciated!! xx


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